Cameras and various types of camera systems are well known and applied in a wide variety of applications to view and/or record images. A typical application, for example, of a camera system is to provide surveillance, such as for perimeter and facility security or general area awareness or monitoring of a given area. However, conventional cameras and camera systems have a number of potential drawbacks.
For example, a conventional camera or camera system for surveillance typically has a limited or narrow field of view. To overcome this limitation, for example, the camera may be mechanically driven to point at a desired area to be monitored that exceeds its limited field of view. However, this allows a portion of the required field of view to be unmonitored for a certain period of time, depending upon the slewing parameters of the mechanically driven camera.
As another example, a conventional camera may include a field of view that can be switched between a wide field of view and a narrow field of view. A user, for example, may switch to the narrow field of view to provide a higher resolution for an area of interest. However, it may be difficult to locate immediately the desired area of interest when switching to the narrow field of view (e.g., due to time delays associated with the switching), sometimes referred to as a loss of track problem. As a result, there is a need for an improved camera and camera techniques.